Happy New Year 2008!

Well, first off, Happy New Year to all, I hope that this year brings not only myself but all of you all that you have hoped for and more. More importantly, what you need, but don't realize.

This year has gotten off to a pretty good start. My Christmas and New Years celebrations were pretty crazy, involving more than one strange Japanese girl, an American living in Kazakhstan, an unnatural quantity of alcohol, and Megatron.

What I didn't mention about Greg's party but should have was that I got a Megatron Transformer for Christmas on top of a stack of much needed cash. It's sick, I love the thing. Also, Jeannine, a gal from America living and working as a teacher in Kazakhstan was there visiting Greg, which turned out to be quite the irritant for his Japanese girlfriend Miki, who would occasionally flip out and get all emotional because it completely violates traditional Japanese relationship norms to have a girl stay with you, regardless of the nature of your relationship, which, if you knew them, you'd know what completely platonic.

For New Years, Bryan Andy Ty Dave and I started off at Saizeriya for a couple magnums of red wine before heading out to Kashiwa to meet up with Greg and Miki, and as it turns out Maya and Asami, Miki's make-out friendly friends, and Moses and Ben, two very nice guys from Nigeria. Oh, and Nathan too, who I worked with in Kanamachi for a time, who shares a love of a particular massively multiplayer online role playing game with me. The night basically turned out to be Asami making out with anyone she could, and Maya throwing herself all over me and me having to dodge her attempts to make out with/fondle/etc me. Saki was out with her friends that night, though I wish she were there with me, because she could have helped fend off Maya. Then again, I would have had to deal with Saki dealing with Maya throwing herself all over me, which would have been equally unenjoyable.

We would up at karaoke, but not before Bryan drank himself sick and had to be taken home by Fumi, who showed up just in the nick of time to do so. Karaoke was fun, but expensive, as we missed our train to go to Shin Matsudo to do it there and had to go to Shidax, the world's most expensive anything. That was fun too. Highlights include losing the ball of my eyebrow piercing to Miki trying to put it back on for me, having to change seats multiple times to avoid Maya actively trying to grab my balls any time I wasn't actively removing her hands from them, Jeannine being tired and grumpy, Miki crying, Asami making out some more, and a lot of singing. Went to bed around 7.

Then on Thursday, Bryan and I went to the Hub again to meet Greg and Jeannine for her last night in Japan, where Greg started talking to some random middle-aged Japanese woman sitting next to us, who joined us upon Greg's request, and stayed well after his departure. Amanda Nikki and Sachiyo showed up out of nowhere and they joined us too, and the 6 of us not including Greg and Jeannine but including strange Japanese woman Reiko, made our way to Shin Matsudo via last train to go sing some karaoke. We're pretty sure Reiko is a hostess or a snack bar girl, from the way she acted, and she certainly knew her stuff when it came to that karaoke bar. Our drinks were slow and she was all over them, we got our stuff in record time, and it turned out to be surprisingly cheap, much more so than our New Years excursion, which, for the record, was not the most expensive of all time, but still way up there. Got back home and went to bed around 3.

Yesterday I met up with Saki at Moraju of all places, to help her pick out some glasses. It's fun doing little mundane things with her, it's kind of a hint at what's to come in the future, and it reassures me to know that we do those things well and enjoy them.

Being in Moraju was weird though, and we walked by Nova to find it wasn't there anymore. A wall had been erected where the entrance once was, and when we peeked in from outside through the edges of the pull-down curtains, we discovered that everything, I mean everything had been demolished and removed. The whole place was just empty drywall and spackle. Very odd. Very odd indeed to look at the place where you spent two years of your life working and see absolutely nothing to remind you that it was ever there. Not the first time in history that's ever happened, but still an odd experience nonetheless. Odd for Saki too, as the place where we met, and the whole reason we know each other in the first place no longer exists, not only in the fact that particular Nova isn't there anymore, but that I'm no longer a Nova teacher and she's no longer a student. Kinda makes me glad we met when we did. But, I'm always glad for that, regardless of Nova's plight.

After that we drove back to Kita Kashiwa to drop off her car, and I gave her the choice of going somewhere local, or going to my secret place, which I had picked out but wouldn't tell her, only that it was kinda far. After the great equalizer, rock paper scissors, we decided to go to my secret place. Let me just say this now that the Japanese have RPS down to a science, so much so that they can win or lose games at their leisure. I know for a fact, despite not know how, that she threw that game. I wish I understood it, but I think I'd have to have grown up here to have that kind of skill. It's like jinx I guess, when two people say something at the same time. Or calling shotgun.

So we got on the train and headed into Tokyo to my secret place, which turned out to be the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, where yes, I know, I took Melissa back in the day, but it's such a nice place, and well worth going to again, especially for a nice classy evening with a little fun added in. We went to the aquarium and saw the dolphin show, and the sea lion show, both of which I missed last time, and the Amusing Sunfish was sleeping, which was oddly amusing in and of itself, despite being completely uninteresting. Sleeping fish. Weird. Doesn't help that the dang thing is like the size of a car, and bobbing around upside down in a tank. Also doesn't help that Sunfish are just the weirdest looking things ever.

Anyway, after that we hopped on the roller coaster they have there, and then made our way to the 39th floor for some cocktails and a nice view of Tokyo. We had a great conversation up there, telling stories and going back and forth sharing tidbits of our lives we had previously left out. We discovered, not surprisingly as we get along so well, but surprisingly enough, that we both have what seem to be very interesting pasts, which had given us a great deal of experience in life, yet somehow haven't really jaded us much. I was surprised by how well balanced Saki is, I've always been able to see it, but, the more I get to know her, the more I realize just how little I have to worry about her.

We made our way back, and went to bed back at my place, and lounged around the house all day today before I took her to the station so I could dick around a little bit and relax before having to get up early tomorrow morning to go to a meeting for work in Iidabashi at Interac HQ. We were both pretty frisky today and yesterday, but fortunately, her period started yesterday so nothing really was possible. Yes, I said fortunately and if you read the previous entry you'll know why.

K that's all for now, as if that's not enough. Happy New Year all!